Our StormCon Plans

Well, life continues to mess with our schedule, so here it is:

We spent today chasing doctor appointments.
Susan is on some new medications, we will see how that goes, and what the effects are.
We have an early appointment and we will be arriving at the con during the first gaming session.
We will set up, talk to people, deliver orders and con cards, and be there through the first break.

We will be back early Saturday and stay as long as Sue can.

Mark

Newsletter sent! And some Beta thoughts.

This will come as a shock to many of you, but we sent out a newsletter. If you did not get it, you either never signed up, or your email address has changed.

To update your email, contact Tim at tim@kennardweb.net. He is handling the Guild list now.

I uploaded a new Universal Beta 2 PDF. I thought I would add a few thoughts about the cards. As you know, not all Beta cards will ever see print, they are out there for your entertainment and for us to get your opinions.

Battle Moves is an experiment to reduce the number of cards in play. While some of us do not mind keeping track of several active cards, others want it simple. Battle Moves is made to look at some simpler combinations. We shall see how it works.

Shifted Boost is designed to compensate for role-playing choices. As an example, I have a gargoyle who likes rocks. His fists are rocks, he wants to use them. With the current cards I am penalized for making that choice. This card let's me play the way I want without taking a no Melee weapon penalty. The tricky part of this card is that it is meant for actual forms, like Gargoyle, not for being a Tigrean. We also don't see it working for small forms. However, a player may have a good explanation why she should be able to use it in a Pegasus Horse form, so we added "Ask GM" to let role-playing work. Power players will want to abuse this card, so despite the card covering a needed category, it may never see print.

Dual Weapons. In DS 2 we are keeping extra attacks to combat trained people, but anyone could use two weapons. The biggest advantage of having Dual Weapons is that they are harder to defend against. The New version gives a damage bonus most of the time. There is a roll to succeed, although good role-playing may get you the bonus without a roll at all. To make faster games I also added a simplified roll GM's may want players to use.

Totally alert was in the Awareness/Perception set, but it seems like something that should be Universal. Almost more of a role-playing skill than one that would be limited to a specialist.

Nightvision, like Totally Alert, was in the Perceptive type skills, but it should be Universal. Everybody and their sister had Nightvision in Classic DS. We have been looking for a way to limit Nightvision. After several different experiments, we think being a Boon will restrict Nightvision to just those characters who have a good reason for using up a Boon slot.

Keep checking on the Beta's. Keep trying them. I know there should be a form on the page to deal with comments on these and when I can carve out the time I will get that done.

See you at Origins!

Mark

Magic and WIS versus LLB

I have just finished the final tweaks on the Shamanism and Wizardry cards and thought it best to explain our use of them in Magics.

Wizardry relies heavily on Wisdom. Since putting a point Value on anything with Wisdom is guesswork, we made a separate +WIS enhancement card for Wizards. This is the magic field a hot shot smart kid would go into. In the rules you are allowed to replace the WIS bonus with Experience (your LLB bonus). A hard working average Wizard will take a lot longer to get a decent bonus, but such is life.
(Insider information. The Prismatic school Anchor will add two Wisdom. Look for the Prismatic Beta cards between now and StormCon.)
We did not add WIS to the Wizardry Anchor. We wanted the card at a low enough CP value to allow a starting character to take the Anchor.

In Shamanism and Witchcraft it is the Experience (LLB) that counts. The rules do not allow you to replace LLB with Wisdom. There is no replacing experience, you have to put in the hard work. Hotshots go into Wizardry.

Doing the LLB and WIS this way gives the magic schools the feeling we are looking for on Grandilar. In addition this will allow us to add WIS through Boons etc. to the Wizards without ruining the feel of Witchcraft and Shamanism. Having said this, rule 3.4 allows a GM to overrule us. Just be aware that we designed the system to work as written. We do not know what such a change will do to the games feel, but it will probably just turn it into a Power game. Everyone will have to be a Wizard, just to keep up, no matter how that affects the role-playing.

Mark

Changes, Origins and something else

Short commentary:
For those of you who did not catch the changes on the website, well, there have been changes.
Ended the May pre-orders.
Added pre-orders for Origins and StormCon releases. New magic schools have started into production.
Revised and posted Valarian Primes and the new Councilor. To be released at StormCon.
Beta revisions based on input from GM's and players. Added Canid race cards. Revised Orcs.

Origins. We will have the new Bundles at the booth. Available on line now. New Magics start at Origins. We have a sales booth and a Demo booth this year. Despite the vicious Necro attacks, we keep going and growing. Thank You!

Sue's health is still fragile and going up and down. If you want to see Sue at Origins, come early. Sue will not be taking any new commissions at this Con. When she hits her limit we will leave and let the volunteers handle the booth. We do have some great friends!

A few words about the Spirit World.

Hadrian tells about the Spirit World.

Hadrian stood in front of the small group of Valarians. He did not strike fear into anyone's heart, but there may have been a touch of loathing. The elderly Das Karr stood just over five feet tall and looked as though this was not his year to bathe. When the breeze was right you could almost smell him. His back was hunched, his shoulders rounded, and you could clearly see the bald spot on his protruding stomach, it was not a pretty sight.

At last the old fellow seemed to be ready to speak, he quietly cleared his throat and looked around at the dozen youngsters, waiting for them to pay attention. After several minutes he seemed to sigh with resignation.

He took in a deep breath and suddenly his voice boomed out across the clearing with an astonishing volume and vigor. "Shut your freaking mouths and pay attention. The lesson is half over, and what have you learned? Nothing. What have I learned? That I am wasting my time here."

His voice dropped in volume and seemed to crack with every word. "Let us begin. You are hear to learn something about the Spirit World, and I am hear to tell you something about the spirit world."

Several people in the audience were furiously trying to get their ears adjusted, and a couple who had fallen down from the shouting drew themselves up to a sitting position.

"The Spirit World does not conform to our physical worlds rules. Many of the things I will tell you are impossible, yet they are true. To save us both some time I will simply list them. We will not discuss them, they just are. No sense debating what is, at least not in my experience. It is better to just deal with the strangeness and get on about your business."

1. The Spirit World is made up of billions of individual clouds. These clouds swirl and dance around each other. They have within them the capacity to flash colors as they move. Their color flashing is the only light in the Spirit World.
2. It is very disconcerting to have strobe lights constantly operating all around you. Your "sight" is limited to 200 feet. Easy to get lost, stay near your Spirit Walker or you will be lost.
3. The Spirit World has an Up and a down. You will be walking on the "ground". The ground is shaped vaguely like the physical world that it wraps around, but is made of flashing clouds.
4. The Spirit World is 1/4 the distance of the physical World. When you walk a mile in it, you have travelled four miles across the physical worlds surface.
5. Paradoxically the Spirit World appears to be four times the size of the physical World. I told you it was impossible, but there it is.
6. Ranged weapons do not work. Arrows stop when they leave the bow. Thrown daggers stop when they leave the hand.
7. There is nothing for you to eat or drink. Take supplies.
8. There are a fracking lot of spirits, but the vast majority are too busy reliving their lives to bother you. There will usually be 20 to 30 in sight.
9. Warp Storms affect the Spirit and Astral Worlds as well sat the physical world. The storms literally cross the lines between worlds and cause devastation on all three. This has warped a lot of spirits, be careful.
10. There are an unlucky few who have the ability to "see" the paths in the spirit world and can travel semi-safely. Spirit Walkers can do this. You probably can not.
11. When a person on the physical world dies and their spirit travels to the spirit world there is, sometimes, a rip in the spirit world that you can escape through. If you get lost, look for small herds of spirits waiting to greet newcomers. They seem to sense when a newbie is arriving.
12. Shaman spells will regenerate in the Spirit World. Wizard, Necromatic, Witchcraft types, and Pylos Powers, do not regenerate, even if you drink potions, they just do not recharge. Fortunately, shifter and universal skills do regenerate. You do not find many Witches, Elementalist, Wizards or Necros on the paths, and that is a good thing.
13. Spirits have many unusual methods of attack and will use them. Do not think you know what any of them will do. The warp has not helped in this respect.
14. A number of "magic items" from the physical world have been lost in the Spirit World by one method or another. If you are lucky, you may find one. If you are unlucky, you will be sent to retrieve one.

"Ok. That is it for the lesson. Good luck to any of you that find it necessary to be in the Spirit World. May the blessings of all 181 Gods and Goddesses protect you from the dangers of the Spirit World. Hmm, what? Oh, yes, 181, at least that is how many I have heard of or run across. Now, let me get going, they are giving me a free meal!"

Mark Harmon